ACC: Game Two Wrap, Game Three Begins

By Glenn Tanner - May 23, 2007

Miami-Clemson will begin at about 5:20. Clemson will throw sometimes-starter, sometimes-closer Daniel Moskos. He has made 24 appearances, 7 starts, and has a 3-5 record, a 3.07 ERA, and 68 K's in 58.2 innings. Miami throws Scott Maine, who's 5-5 with a 3.06 ERA in 85.1 innings.

After both games today, teams mentioned how hard the infield is. The grounds crew just watered it down pretty good, so we'll see if that helps.

Quotes from game two below:

"That was the first time all year I've felt helpless in the dugout. There was nothing you could do but bring in [a new pitcher] and try to encourage him. There's a fine line between a ball and a strike sometimes." -- UNC coach Mike Fox

"Of all the days for our pitchers not to find the strike zone, today was not the day. If there was ever a day to throw strikes, today is the day. If this wasn't a pitcher's day with the wind blowing in, I don't know what would be." -- Fox

"If they pitch well, Georgia Tech is extremely dangerous." -- Fox

"I made the decision last week that we wouldn't throw Duncan on short rest... but I felt like if we wanted to win this tournament and make a statement that we deserve to be in the NCAA tournament, we had to start our best pitcher today." -- GT coach Danny Hall

"It was a long weekend. I know everyone had that bitter taste in their mouths. I think we took it upon ourselves to step up and make a better show today and the rest of the tournament." -- Patrick Long, referring to last week's embarrassing home sweep against FSU

"I really like the format, and I think it's the best thing for our conference, because it guarantees you're going to play three games and you can set your pitching rotation like a normal weekend. Plus, you play three different opponents, so unlike last year when we had come off playing Miami three times the week before and played them the first game of the tournament, and then played them again later. We played them five times and played Clemson three times in the tournament, so it keeps you away from playing a team a bunch of times. And it also keeps you away from really extending your pitching staff, so when you get to the next weekend, your pitchers are on a normal routine, they're rested, and it lines you up for post-season." -- Hall

On the wind:
"It was a lot easier to pitch today. It was kind of a backwards approach -- you're usually trying to keep the ball down and get ground balls, today I was just letting them hit it, and it wasn't going far at all." -- pitcher David Duncan

and:
"It changed our hitting approach. You had to look for a pitch down in the strike zone. You didn't want to get a pitch above your belt, even though those look really good. If you were going to swing at them, you really had to focus on staying on top of the ball." -- Wally Cranker